As I said before the season, the only people thinking that were glassy eyed-Sox fans, local publications, and the organization. The most optimistic national publications had us below .500, many significantly so. A lot of us on this board stated over and over there was very little chance this team would hit .500 as constructed. Yes, this is the bottomed out version very few thought coming (though some of us did say 100 losses was possible), but that's only a function of the Twins being good enough to pass us (and beat up on us a bit). Whether we lose 100 or just 90, the fact of the matter is there wasn't a plane of existance where .500 was a realistic outcome for this team as assembled. It's time to let go of that thought. This isn't the season that got derailed. The guys on our team are not having career bad seasons. They are having seasons that befit them. This was a bad team to start. There probably aren't a dozen guys on the whole squad that have a role on a contending team. If it wasn't obvious to you before the season, it should be very clear now. Let it go already.

Only a true pessimist would have thought they would field and hit this badly.

__________________"I have the ultimate respect for White Sox fans. They were as miserable as the Cubs and Red Sox fans ever were but always had the good decency to keep it to themselves. And when they finally won the World Series, they celebrated without annoying every other fan in the country." Jim Caple, ESPN (January 12, 2011)

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the (bleeding) obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." — George Orwell

I thought our pitching would be good enough and along with some sort of an offense, we would be .500. Our pitching has been good enough but the hitting is as we all know is another story, never did I think it could be this bad. Of course we have to add the horrible defense, how could the same team go from the fewest errors to almost the most. I knew that by picking up Keppinger as our only off-season addition we weren't going to catch the Tigers, still I thought .500 was doable.

You traded Morel's defense for Keppinger, who's a butcher, and A.J.'s passable defense for another butcher. You already had a butcher in left. Konerko/Dunn was bad last year and still is. Rios is getting older as well. Alexei's committed a few more errors, but really it's overreaction to blame him for the defensive struggles. He's still getting to a ton more balls than most shortstops.

Old teams are bad at defense. Period. This was an old team that added more bad defenders. What was supposed to happen? It played out exactly as anyone who looked at it objectively would have predicted.

Pitching is half the game, yes, (or mostly yes based on how you view defense) but as history has pointed out time and again having half the game doesn't make you a half good team. You don't win games if you can't score just like you don't win games if you can't stop the other team from scoring at will.

Quote:

Originally Posted by asindc

Only a true pessimist would have thought they would field and hit this badly.

Only a true optimist could look at this team and think they could win 80+ games.

I'm not trying to do the "I told you so" thing. I'm trying to get people to not still think that, on paper, this team should compete. That wasn't the case before the season, how anyone could think it now is beyond denial. It's painful to listen to. There's so many other instances where teams actually do face bad luck/breaks that kill them. Just because you're bad doesn't mean you're unlucky. Yeah, we've had injuries. But that's the expecation when you build your roster around old, injury prone players.

You traded Morel's defense for Keppinger, who's a butcher, and A.J.'s passable defense for another butcher. You already had a butcher in left. Konerko/Dunn was bad last year and still is. Rios is getting older as well. Alexei's committed a few more errors, but really it's overreaction to blame him for the defensive struggles. He's still getting to a ton more balls than most shortstops.

Old teams are bad at defense. Period. This was an old team that added more bad defenders. What was supposed to happen? It played out exactly as anyone who looked at it objectively would have predicted.

Pitching is half the game, yes, (or mostly yes based on how you view defense) but as history has pointed out time and again having half the game doesn't make you a half good team. You don't win games if you can't score just like you don't win games if you can't stop the other team from scoring at will.

Only a true optimist could look at this team and think they could win 80+ games.

I'm not trying to do the "I told you so" thing. I'm trying to get people to not still think that, on paper, this team should compete. That wasn't the case before the season, how anyone could think it now is beyond denial. It's painful to listen to. There's so many other instances where teams actually do face bad luck/breaks that kill them. Just because you're bad doesn't mean you're unlucky. Yeah, we've had injuries. But that's the expecation when you build your roster around old, injury prone players.

Weren't you the guy who said the Tigers would challenge for the best record ever? I love how you talk down to anyone who was optimistic about the Sox even though your win total prediction for the Tigers will be even farther off.

Weren't you the guy who said the Tigers would challenge for the best record ever? I love how you talk down to anyone who was optimistic about the Sox even though your win total prediction for the Tigers will be even farther off.

I said they COULD. That's a huge leap to say they would versus acknowledge they had the talent to do so.

Still, they still look that good? They're in first with one of the best run differentials in baseball. They've got a guy viying for his second triple crown, a rotation with 4 of the best 20 or so pitchers in the league, and one of their pitchers is still undefeated. Their one hole is closer (they've only converted 2/3 of their saves), which they'll probably fill any day now via trade.

Considering he's already had two 20 error seasons as well, I submit that while he's certainly had a few more mental lapses than normal this year, last year was in fact the aberration.

His range factor per 9 is still over 4 (which is REALLY good) and his total zone/total fielding runs above average is still also positive. He's committing errors, but he's still a plus defensively versus the average shortstop even after accounting for the errors.

If a guy is just sitting there with limited range, ala Derrick Jeter, then he better have a .980+ fielding percentage to compensate.

If a guy has some of the best range at his position (and it's a position that it matters, like up the middle), keeping it in the .965 range is acceptable. Alexei's a little lower than that, but he's not way off either. And his range has been just as spectacularly above average as it's always been. There's no reason for someone to come in and look at our defense, point at Alexei, and say "that's the problem". Because he isn't even part of the problem. He's been above average.

Just curious, if you hate this team, why waste your time? Does it make you feel better to watch and say "Oh, man, this team stinks! I'm gonna watch the whole game then complain about how much I hate this team and hate watching them!!!"

Yeah, this team is terrible but if you dont want to watch this White Sox baseball, find something else to do.

This might be the most different last place team in baseball history. Virtually every last place team is in last place because of bad pitching. Now that Danks is back pitching decently, this White Sox pitching staff is good. If Peavy comes back and pitches good this staff will even be better. This team is in last place because it CAN'T HIT. I'm beginning to think that Hahn won't do anything to improve this team this season. Maybe he will keep this pitching staff and then after the season he will sign some free agents to improve the offense. Does it make any sense to trade your strength (the pitchers) for some hitters? Or is it better to keep the pitchers and sign some free agents who can hit?

Just curious, if you hate this team, why waste your time? Does it make you feel better to watch and say "Oh, man, this team stinks! I'm gonna watch the whole game then complain about how much I hate this team and hate watching them!!!"

Yeah, this team is terrible but if you dont want to watch this White Sox baseball, find something else to do.

Ride a bike, read a book, watch Phineas & Ferb...

That attitude is more infuriating than the team's play. The team's bad so somehow we should either accept it happily and keep our mouth's shut or leave baseball forever?

We complain because that's what a lot of fans need to be do when it's this bad. Not watching is also an option, but it shouldn't be in the sense that if you aren't going to be positive about this ****ty team you need to go away. Everyone deals with it differently. Just because I can accept how bad they are (and have since before the season) doesn't mean I don't have a lot to say about it.